Answering Atheist Objections I : Why Kill Canaanites?

http://www.ronrhodes.org/
Dr. Ron Rhodes of Reasoning through the scriptures addressed some of the hard questions posed by atheists and skeptics recently on the Lamb and Lion program with Dr David Regan.
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• Canaanites
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[heidenhase]

This guy is basically saying that there are situations in which genocide is justified. Well thanks - I hope he and his followers will never get anywhere near to actual powerful positions inside a government. And see how he is using a comparison to nature to make his argument sound more "reasonable"? It's all been done before, with the worst consequences for humanity.

[bigwhammyRocks]

It is a misconception to use the term "genocide" because ancient tribes are not comparable to modern sensibilities like Stalin's or Mao's genocidal campaign against Christians who were harmless.

By your standard there could be no just defense against madmen like Hitler. It was necessary to bomb Germany - to not do so would have been far worse consequences for humanity. So your argument breaks down on that humanism point as well.

[ThoughtfulAtheist]

atheists do not burn newborn children. what misguiding people they are

[bigwhammyRocks]

? No one claimed Atheists did. The Canaanites did burn children, which is one of the many reasons why God commanded Israel to destroy them.

[idricool]

@bigwhammyRocks So you're going to destroy the Canaanites and their children because they burned their children ?

Sounds like the Bible justifies doing the job of the Canaanites for them.

[fhsoder]

Looks like a nazi justifying the holocaust.

[ChipArgyle]

Why would God dislike Canaanites for roasting babies over open fire? He was really big on burnt offering for the longest time. And as I recall, he wiped out two whole cities with a rain of fire-didn't even use a volcano to do it.

Oh wait a sec-I just reviewed the video. God was pissed because the babies were roasted as an offering to some other God, not because they were being roasted. Well, the nerve of those people! Of course they had to be destroyed.

[wseerldnoeoedfry]

With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg

And that's why these kindly old men are so sure that it was a good idea to kill off an entire tribe, including the children.

[r3ggi3000]

What would it take for these people to acknowledge the evil that YHWH is? What is it that they CAN'T justify?

[LizardLandscapes]

Excellent video, thanks for posting this!

[sirbobulous]

If God is all powerful, all loving and all forgiving why could he find no other possible solution (or create a new solution) that would allow for the curing of the 'cancer' in the midst without destroying them? If it would be a breach of their free will why doesnt he just create something new and special to allow him to change their minds and fully understand the wrongness of their acts without impinging on their free will.

NOTHING is beyond his means. God could do it if he wanted. He just wont

[5355vbxjbj76rvn]

@bigwhammyRocks

That won't work. Massacring a defenceless population is wrong when Nazis do it, & wrong with Catholics do it, & wrong when other Christians do it, & wrong when Muslims do it - it is wrong when Israelites & Jews do it.

Ancient gods are are often represented as requiring armies to campaign; & that is what we have here: Israelite aggression is attributed to their god, to justify their actions. He didn't order these acts; men did. God is revealed in Jesus, not in these deeds

[5355vbxjbj76rvn]

@TheFlanker35

Yup. The cancer argument is one Catholics should be familiar with - it is an old argument for putting heretics to death. The man has just defended the Inquisition LOL.

Funnier than that is that when the argument is applied to Biblical atrocities, it's fine to kill Amalekites - but to kill Protestant heretics, outside the Bible ? Nope - that's bad. Yet the logic is identical. Massacre is always wrong - to say otherwise is to debase the teaching of Christ